working my faith into every corner of my life

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I’ve done pretty well

I made a pledge to post once a week at the beginning of the year and now that we are 1 and 1/2 months from the end of 2011 I can say I almost made it. I have done much better than in the past and that’s an improvement.

Maybe it’s my age, but I figure forward movement is a good thing. I am doing National Novel Writing Month and I have done much better than last. I think I only got 3,000 words or so last year before I realized it wasn’t going to happen. I am up to 15,254 and still going, even though I am behind and due to finish Novembers writing in January if I continue at this pace.

It is an improvement and I have had the courage to allow someone to read my story and he likes it. He is not, however, unbiased. He loves me. Then, there’s the desire not to risk … well, we won’t go there.

The thing about using my own past to create a story is the emotional component. I know that it makes the story better, but the re-living makes it tough. I have had to take time now and then to allow the sunshine of everyday life to break up the fog of old memories and emotions.

A profound, (for me) reality has been coming into focus during this past weekend. When I take time to listen to the way others remember my childhood I get a completely different perspective. The disfunction of my teenage years took over the delight of my childhood, spoiling some wonderfully cool experiences. Like the time Dad took my friends and I camping at Mount Tam and in the wee hours of the morning we woke up soaking wet in the middle of cloud, while Dad, sleeping lower down the mountain by the picnic tables was bone dry. He got a speeding ticket while driving home on a Sunday morning in the days when that meant there was no traffic. Dad was awesome!!

The pictures were taken at Samuel P Taylor Park a long time ago. Force yourself to remember the cool stuff now and then. It may bring a smile to your heart.